NHL Game Summary - Pittsburgh at Detroit
Detroit, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Justin Abdelkader scored the game-winning goal with 44 seconds left in overtime to complete a 4-3 comeback victory for the Detroit Red Wings over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Henrik Zetterberg got his stick on Paul Martin's clearing attempt before Abdelkader jumped on the loose puck in the slot and fired it over the shoulder of Thomas Greiss for the win.
Niklas Kronwall had two goals and an assist and Zetterberg also had a three- point night, tallying a goal and two assists for Detroit, which has registered at least a point in each of its last five games.
"We weren't pretty for a lot of the night," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. "In the end, we were able to get it done."
Jimmy Howard made 23 saves in the win.
Pascal Dupuis, Olli Maatta and Chris Kunitz all scored for the Penguins, who had Greiss stop 27-of-31 shots in his season debut.
"We have to learn from it," said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. "Hopefully, we put ourselves in position with a two-goal lead more often and do a better job to protect it."
The Red Wings scored two late goals to tie the game with the goaltender pulled.
Danny DeKeyser laced a pass through the neutral zone to Zetterberg, who raced into the zone and wristed a shot past Greiss to make it a 3-2 game with 2:39 left in regulation.
The Red Wings tied the game two minutes later. Zetterberg sent the puck from the left boards to Pavel Datsyuk in the slot. Datsyuk skated across the goalmouth on the backhand, but dished the puck back to Kronwall, who beat Greiss with a shot from the slot.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring 5:12 into the game. Blake Comeau raced down the ice on a 2-on-1 with Dupuis, who took Comeau's cross-ice pass and snapped a shot from the left circle over Howard's blocker for the early lead.
Maatta emerged from the left corner and slid a backhander through the pads of Howard for a 2-0 Penguins lead with 8:54 to play in the opening stanza.
Kronwall received a pass from Darren Helm, faked a shot to move past Patric Hornqvist and fired a shot past a screened Greiss to cut the deficit in half with five minutes remaining in the first.
Kunitz entered the Detroit zone up the left side to the top of the circle, where he snapped a shot past Howard to increase Pittsburgh's lead to 3-1 near the midpoint of the second.